


Watching Iron Man 2

by orphan_account



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Iron Man 2, Marvel Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26251300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Up next: Iron man 2
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Loki (Marvel), Gamora/Peter Quill, Groot & Rocket Raccoon, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Scott Lang/Hope Van Dyne, Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Comments: 7
Kudos: 125





	1. Introduction

"I don't really think there's much to discuss to be honest." Natasha said. 

"Okay then." The woman in the walls said. "Hey are we ever going to find out what your name is?" Fury asked her. "Oh, I'm sorry, where have my manners been, you can call me Loraine." the woman in the walls said. "At least we have a name now." Clint said. "Anyway I would like to add our final group of characters.From sometime in the 90s we have Carol Danvers. From 2017 we have May Parker and Valkyrie. And I forget to mention the Guardians come from 2015 and Dr Strange comes from 2018. I leave you all to get settled and I'll introduce the next story soon." Loraine said. 

"May." Peter said and went to hug her. "Where are we?" "We- I don't know, all I know is we can't leave."

"Wassup Nick." Carol said. Fury glared at her. 

"Hello Thor, Loki, Bruce." Valkyrie said. They looked at her, confused. "Guess you haven't met me yet." She said ans went to find a seat. 

"Okay on to the next story." Loraine said. Words on the screen said 'Iron Man 2.'

"Looks like its another one about you Tony." Clint said.

"I hope this isn't going where I think it's going." Tony said.


	2. The Expo

**"Been a while since I was up here in front of you. Maybe I'll do us all a favor and just stick to the cards. There's been some speculation that I was somehow involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and on the rooftop..." Tony says in a voice over.**

"Didn't we already see this?" Clint asked.

**"Sorry, Mr Stark, do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared despite the fact that you sorely despise bodyguards?" Christine asks. "Yes." "And this mysterious bodyguard was somehow equipped with an undisclosed Stark high-tech powered battle..." The scene shows a view of snowy rooftops. 'Moscow' Appears on the screen.**

"This is going where I thought it was going." Tony sighed.

**"I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero." The scene shows the 'I am Iron Man' press conference on a TV. " I mean, let's face it, I'm not the heroic type. A laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public. The truth is... I am Iron Man."**

The people that didn't see the first film looked confused.

**Anton Vanko is shown lying in a bed.**

"Is that Anton Vanko?" Howard asked.

**"Ivan... Vanya." He calls, then starts coughing. Ivan walks over to him and helps him sit up. "** _**That should be you.** _ **" He says, in Russian. "** _**Don't listen to that crap.** _ **" Ivan says. "** _**I'm sorry. All I can give you is my knowledge.** _ **" Anton says and coughs, he dies. Ivan has tears in his eyes.**

'I would have had sympathy for him if he hadn't been such a dick.' Tony thought. 

**Ivan is shown building his own arc reactor with his fathers blue prints. Pictures of different newspapers and magazines adorn the walls of the room. Ivan's arc reactor starts glowing, he chuckles.**

"This isn't good." Pietro whispered to Wanda who nodded. 

**"270 at 30 knots. Holding steady at 15000 feet. You are clear for ex filtration over the drop zone." A man says over a radio. AC/DC' shoot to thrill starts playing. '6 months later appears on the screen. Tony, in the Iron Man suit, jumps out of a plane. He flies through the roof of a building and lands on a stage. There is a group of women behind him, dancing. Something comes up from the floor of the stage to disassemble the suit. The song finishes and the crowd starts chanting Tony's name.**

"Jeez, talk about showmanship." Bucky whispered to Steve. They were being reminded of the night Howard tried and failed to show off his flying car. 

**"Oh! Its good to be back!" Tony says and turns to face the crown. "You missed me." He continues. "Blow something up!" A guy in the audience yells. "Blow something up? I already did that. I'm not saying that the world is enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace in years because of me. I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history. I'm not saying that Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea because I haven't come across anyone who's man enough to go toe-to-toe with me on my best day."**

"A little narcissistic, don't you think." Natasha joked.

**"I love you Tony!" A woman in the crowd yells. "Please, its not about me."**

"Its not?" Steve asked, skeptical. 

**"Its not about you, its not even about us." He continues.**

"Than who is it about?" Drax asked.

**"It's about legacy. It's about what we choose to leave behind for future generations. And that's why for the next year and for the first time since 1974, the best and brightest men and women of nations and corporations the world over will pool their resources, share their collective vision, to leave behind a brighter future. It's not about us. Therefore, what I'm saying, if I'm saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo. [** _**Big cheer from crowd.** _ **] And now, making a special guest appearance from the great beyond to tell you what it's all about, please welcome my father, Howard."**

"Nice speech." Scott compliments.

**A video starts playing on screen as Tony walks off stage. Howard starts speaking.** **"Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust health, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. So, from all of us here at Stark Industries, I would like to personally introduce you to the City of the Future. Technology holds infinite possibilities for mankind." Onscreen Howard says. Tony pricks his finger on a device. 'Blood toxicity 19%.' it reads.**

"Why is your blood becoming toxic?" Bruce asked. "Um, you'll see." Tony said, not really wanting to say why.

**"and will one day rid society of all its ills. Soon technology will affect the way you live your life every day. No more tedious work, leaving more time for leisure activities and enjoying the sweet life. The Stark Expo. Welcome." Onscreen Howard finishes. A reporter is talking. "We are coming to you live from the kickoff at the Stark Expo, where Tony Stark has just walked offstage. Don't worry if you can't make it down here tonight because this Expo goes on all year long. And I'm gonna be here checking out all the attractions and the pavilions and inventions from all around the world."**

"That's a year long thing?"Quill whispered to himself.

**The scene cuts to Tony and Happy walking out of the building, from Tony's point of view. "Its a zoo out there, watch out." Happy says. Tony is being crowded by a large group of people. "Hey, nice to see you. All right. Thank you. I remember you." He says. "Tony, Tony." someone says. "Hey, hey." "Call me." A woman says. "Hey, hey, hey, hey. Come on, come on." Happy says. A couple of kids walk up to him and ask him to sign pictures. "Hello. It would be a pleasure.." He pats the boy wearing the iron man helmet on the head. "See you buddy." "This is Larry." Happy introduces. "hey, the oracle of Oracle. What a pleasure. Nice to see you." "Call me. Call me." "Larry King." Happy says. "Larry! Larry. Yes, my people, my people." They finally make it to the door. "Come on, Tony. There we go." Happy says. "Very mellow."**

"That was mellow to you, I'd hate to see what chaotic is." Valkyrie said. 

**"It wasn't so bad." "No it was perfect." "Look what we got here, the new model." Happy says and unlocks a car, there's a woman leaning against the side of it. "Does she come with the car?" Tony asks.**

Pepper smacked Tony.

 **"I certainly hope so. Hi." Happy says. "Hi. And you are?" Tony asks once they approach. "Marshal." The woman says. "Irish. I like it." Tony says. "Pleased to meet you Tony." She says. "I'm on the wheel, do you mind?" Tony says as he walks over to the drivers side door. "Where are you from?" He asks Marshal. "Bedford." "What are you doing here?" "Looking for you." "Yeah?** You found me. What are you up to later?" He gets into the car. "Serving subpoenas." She says and tries to hand Tony a piece of paper, he doesn't take it. "Yikes." He says. Happy reaches across him and takes the letter. "He doesn't like to be handed things." He explains. 

"Why is that." May asked. "I have a peeve, its a long story."

**"Yeah, I have a peeve." Tony says. " I got it. You are hereby ordered to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow morning at 9 am." Marshal says.**

Some people, namely the people not from Earth, were confused. 

**"Can I see a badge?" Tony asks. "You wanna see the badge?" She asks. "He likes the badge."**

"Before anyone asks, it's for conformation." Tony says when he sees a few people look at him funny.

**Marshal holds her badge out. "You still like it?" She asks. "Yep." He says and starts the engine. "How far are we from DC?" He asks Happy. "DC? Uh 250 miles."**

"How do you just know that?" Scott asked. "I'm good like that." Happy answered. 

**'Washington DC' appears on the screen. A gavel is being banged. "Mr Stark, could we pick up now where we left off? Mr Stark. Please?" Senator Stern asks. Tony turns around. "Yes dear?" He asks.**

"You didn't." Steve said.

**"Can I have your attention?" Stern asks.**

"You can ask, you most likely won't receive." Fury said.

**"Absolutely." Tony says. "Do you or do you not possess a specialized weapon?"**

"That's what this is about?" Bucky asked. Tony nodded with a sigh.

**"I do not." Tony says.**

A few people looked confused. Wasn't it technically a weapon.

**"You do not?" "I do not. "Well, it depends on how you define the word weapon." "The Iron Man weapon." "My device does not fit that description." "Well, How would you describe it?" "I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator." "As." "It's a high-tech prosthesis."**

"Oh my God." Hope laughed a little. 

**The courtroom laughs. "That is-that is-that's actually the most apt description I can make of it." "It's a weapon. It's a weapon, Mr Stark." "Please, if your priority was actually the well-being of the American citizen..."**

The room laughed. It was true...

**"My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America."**

"Not a great plan." Loki said.

**"Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending or what state you're in. You can't have it."**

"Maybe prostitution isn't the best thing to bring up in a courtroom." May said.

**"Look I'm no expert-" "In prostitution? Of course not. You're a senator. Come on." He turns around to look at Pepper, she's unimpressed. "I'm no expert in weapons. We have somebody here who is an expert on weapons. I'd now like to call Justin Hammer, our current primary weapons contractor."**

Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, Tony and Natasha all burst out laughing. "Wait why are we laughing?" Clint asked. "He said weapons expert... and called in Justin Hammer." 

**"Let the record reflect that I observed Mr Hammer entering the chamber, and I am wondering if and when any actual expert will also be in attendance."**

A few people chuckled at that. 

**"Absolutely. I'm no expert. I defer to you, Anthony. You're the wonder boy. Senator, if I may. I may well not be an expert, but you know who was the expert? Your dad. Howard Stark." Justin says.**

"Why is it that, when someone's mad at you they always bring up you dad?" Quill asked. 

**"Absolutely. I'm no expert. I defer to you, Anthony. You're the wonder boy. Senator, if I may. I may well not be an expert, but you know who was the expert? Your dad. Howard Stark." He continues.**

"Why does he call you Anthony, nobody calls you that?" Happy asked. "He's trying to get under my skin." Tony answered.

**"And yet, he insists it's a shield. He asks us to trust him as we cower behind it. I wish I were comforted, Anthony, I really do. I'd love to leave my door unlocked when I leave the house, but this ain't Canada."**

"There's crime in Canada." Maria said.

**"You know, we live in a world of grave threats, threats that Mr Stark will not always be able to foresee. Thank you. God bless Iron Man. God bless America." He finishes.**

"Which translates to: 'Ha ha, beat that Anthony." Tony said.

**"hat is well said Mr Hammer. The committee would now like to invite Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to the chamber." Stern said. "Rhodey? What?" Tony asks ans gets up and walks to Rhodey. "Hey, buddy. I didn't expect to see you here." He greets. "Look, it's me, I'm here. Deal with it. Let's move on." "I just-" "Drop it." "All right, I'll drop it." Tony and Rhodey take their seats.**

"You shut him up quick." Rocket said. 

**"I have before me a complete report on the Iron Man weapon, complied by Colonel Rhodes. And, Colonel, for the record, can you please read page 57, paragraph four?" Stern says. "You're requesting that I read specific selections from my report, Senator?" "Yes, sir." "It was my understanding that I was going to be testifying in a much more comprehensive and detailed manner." " I understand. A lot of things have changed today. So if you could just read-" "You do understand that reading a single paragraph out of context does not reflect the summery of my final-"**

"Yeah, well that's not how this guy sees it." Bucky said.

**"Just read it, Colonel. I do. Thank you." "Very well. "As he does not operate within any definable branch of government, Iron Man presents a potential threat to the security of both the nation and to her interests." I did however, go on to summarize that the benefits of Iron Man far outweigh three liabilities and that it would be in our interest-" "That's enough Colonel." "-to fold to Mr Stark-" "That's enough." "-Into the existing chain of command, Senator." " I'm not a joiner, but I'll consider Secretary of Defense, if you ask nice. We can amend the hours a bit." "I'd like to go on and show, if I may, the imagery that's connected to your report." Stern says. "I believe it is somewhat premature to reveal these images to the general public at this time." Rhodey says.**

"Images of what?" Drax asked. 

**"With all due respect, Colonel, I understand. And if you could just narrate those for us, we'd be very grateful. Let's have the images." Images of attempts to recreate the Iron man suit appear on the screens on either side of the table.**

"Are they trying to-" Steve asked. "Yep."

**"Intelligence suggests that the devices seen in these photos are, in fact, attempts at making manned copies of Mr Stark's suit. This has been corroborated by our allies and local intelligence on the ground-" Rhodey starts. Tony does something on a stark device.**

"I am Groot." "He want's to know what you're doing." Rocket translated. "I'm- well, you'll see." Tony smirked. 

**"-indicating that these suits are quite possibly, at this moment, operational." Rhodey continues. "Hang on there buddy, let me see something here." Tony says and connects his device to the two screens. 'Welcome Mr Stark' appears on both screens. "Boy, I'm good. I commandeered your screens. I need them. Time for a little transparency. Now, let's see what's really going on." "What is he doing?" Stern asks.**

"He's showing you the truth." Shuri says. 

**"If you will direct your attention to said screens, I believe that's North Korea." He says and a video plays. The suit takes a few steps and falls over and accidentally starts to shoot. "Can you turn that off, take it off." Stern says and Justin gets up to do so. "Iran." A suit crashes into the camera. Justin is still trying to turn the screens off. "No grave threat here." A new video starts to play. "Is that Justin Hammer? How did Hammer get in the game?" Justin is shown controlling the suit."Justin you're on TV, focus up."**

The room laughed.

**"Okay give me a left twist. Lefts good. Turn to the right." The suit freezes and breaks. "Oh shit. Oh shit." Onscreen Justin says. Justin finally gets the screen turned off.**

A few people start laughing.

**"Wow. Yeah, I'd say most countries, five, ten years away. Hammer Industries, twenty." Tony says.**

"The only reason he had it when he did was because of Vanko." Tony muttered. 

**"I'd like to point out that that test pilot survived." Justin says.**

"Really not helping your case." Natasha said. 

**" I think we're done is the point that he's making. I don't think there's any reason-" Stern starts. "The point is you're welcome, I guess." "For what?" "Because I'm your nuclear deterrent. It's working. We're safe. America is secure. You want my property? You can't have it. *He starts smacking the table*"**

"Damn right they can't have it." Hank said.

**"But I did you a big favor! I have successfully privatized works peace." he says and stands up, holding out two peace signs.**

"I wouldn't go that far." Bruce said.

**"What more do you want? For now! I tried to play ball with these ass-clowns." He gestures to Stern. "F*** you Mr Stark. F*** you buddy."**

"Did he just say the F bomb on national television?" Steve asked.

**"We're adjourned, we're adjourned for the day." "Okay." Tony says and puts on his sunglasses and blows two kisses at the senator. Rhodey sighed and shook his head.**

**The camera pans out and Ivan Vanko is shown watching this on TV. "My bond is with the people. And I will serve this great nation at the pleasure of myself. If there's one thing I've proven it's that you can count on me to pleasure myself."**

"You just had to say something sexual." Pietro said.

**Ivan does some engineering, creating a weapon of his own. A large rope like object starts sparking. He puts it on and slices his TV in half.**

"That doesn't look friendly." Howard commented. "Yeah, he kind of has it out for me because of what you did to his father." Tony said, bitterly.  
  



	3. I'm being poisoned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally published the wrong part yesterday, I feel so dumb rn

**Tony's house appears. 'Malibu, California' appears on the screen. Tony appears in his lab. He claps his hands twice, music starts playing and all of his screens turn on as well as the lights. "Wake up, Daddy's home."**

"Daddy?" Clint laughs.

**"Welcome home, sir. Congratulations on the opening ceremonies. They were such a success, as was your Senate hearing. And may I say how refreshing it is to finally see you in a video with your clothing on, sir." JARVIS says. The video from the senate hearing appears on one of the screens. YOU is shown making a smoothie, but he just makes a mess. "You!" Tony says. YOU knocks the blender over. "I swear to God I'll dismantle you. I'll soak your motherboard. I'll turn you into a wine rack."**

"You should be more nice to your offspring." Shuri says. "My offspring?" "Well, you created it. Therefore it is your offspring." "Can't argue with that logic."

**YOU looks down. Tony pours a glass of green liquid. "How many ounce a day of this gobbledygook am I supposed to drink?" Tony asks, then takes a sip.**

"What is, and I quote here, 'gobbledygook.'" Strange asked. "Liquid chlorophyll. Would anyone like to try some?" Tony asked. The room went silent. "Screw it, I'm curious. I actually want to drink it now." Scott said, a glass appeared in front of him. "Uh thank you?" He says and picked up the glass and drank some. "Hmm. Its not as bad as I thought, its not particularly good either, but not bad." He said. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. 

**"We are up to 80 ounces a day to counteract the symptoms, sir." JARVIS says. "Check palladium levels."**

"Palladium? That's whats poisoning you?" Bruce asked. 

**Tony pricks his finger on the device from earlier. 'Blood toxicity: 24%' it reads. "Blood toxicity 24%. It appears that the continued use of the Iron Man suit is accelerating your condition." JARVIS says. Tony looks at screens that show the condition of his body. "Another core has been depleted." Tony lifts his shirt and takes the arc reactor out.**

"Is that a-" Howard started. "Yes." Tony answered, he already knew the end of that question. "And it is inside your-" "yes." "Why?" "I'm sure it'll get mentioned."

**The palladium core gets ejected. Tony takes it out, the core is rusted. "God, they're running out quick." Tony comments. "I have run simulations on every known element, and none can serve as a viable replacement for the palladium core." JARVIS says.**

Okoye, Shuri and T'Challa frowned. Vibranium would work but Tony didn't have access to it, but judging by the fact that he was sitting across from them, maybe he did.

**Tony opens a box and takes out a new core, he puts it in the arc reactor and puts the arc reactor back in his chest. "You are running out of both time and options.*One of the screens turns into a mirror, dark colored lines trail out from Tony's chest.* Unfortunately, the device that's keeping you alive is also killing you."**

"Its keeping you alive!?" The people who weren't there for the first film shouted. Tony nodded. Howard was confused. What had happened to his son that he needed to rely on that to keep him alive?

**"Ms Potts is approaching." JARVIS warns. Tony drops his shirt from his mouth. "I recommend that you inform her." "Mute."**

"You haven't told her!?" Almost everyone shouted. Pepper just glared at him. "I wish you would have told her." Vision said.

**Tony closes the box and all the screens switch to screen saver. Pepper puts in a code and enters the lab. Tony continues drinking his chlorophyll. "Uh-uh." He says and points at the door. "Is this a joke?" She asks. Tony finishes his drink as Pepper walks toward him. "What are you thinking?" She asks. "What?" "What are you thinking?" She repeats. Tony stands up and starts walking away. "Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy and you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles, I don't wanna get sick."**

"Cause you're dying." pepper said angrily.

**"Did you just donate-" She starts. "keep your business." Tony says and a bunch oh holograms appear. "Our entire modern art to the-" "Boy scouts of America." "Boy scouts of America!" She yells. Tony grabs a hologram and rolls it into a ball and tosses it into a hologram basket. "Yes it is a worthwhile organization I didn't physically check the crates but, basically, yes. And it's not "our" collection, it's my collection. No offence." He says and swipes some holograms away. "No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say "our" collection considering the time that I put in, over 10 years, curating that." "It was a tax write-off. I needed that." "You know, there's only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about." Tony looks at Dummy. "Dummy. Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part."**

"How can a robot space out?" Scott asked.

**"The Expo is a gigantic waste of time." Pepper says. "I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?"**

"That's a bit rude, don't you think?" MJ said.

**"That's rude." "There's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're-" "The Expo is your ego gone crazy." Tony sees an Iron Man painting sitting on the floor. "Wow. Look at that. That's modern art. That's going up." He says. "Oh you've got to be kidding." "I'm gonna put this up right now. This is vital." " Stark is in complete disarray. You understand that?" "No. Our stocks have never been higher." "Yes, from a managerial standpoint."**

"Geez you two argue like an old married couple." Natasha joked. 

**"You are... Well, if's messy then let's double back." "Let me give you an example." "Let's move on to another subject." Tony speed walks over to the counter in the corner of the lab. "No, no, no, no. You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up." Pepper says. Tony pushes some things off of the counter. "I'm not taking it down. I'm just replacing it with this." Tony gets up on the counter and takes down a picture and puts the Iron Man paining in its place." "Okay, fine. My point is, we have already awarded contracts to the wind farm people." "Yeah. Don't say "wind farm." I'm already feeling gassy." "And to the plastic plantation tree, which was your idea by the way. Those people are on payroll-" "Everything was my idea." "and you won't make a decision." " I don't care about the liberal agenda any more. It's boring. Boring. I'm giving you a boring alert." Tony says and jumps off the counter. "You do it." He says. "I do what?" "Excellent idea. I just figured this out. You run the company."**

"So this is how you became CEO." Natasha said.

 **"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company." She says. "Pepper, I need you to run the company. Well, stop trying to do it and do it." "You will not give me the information." " I'm not asking you to try" "in order to" "I'm asking you to physically do it. I need you to do it." "I am trying to do it." "Pepper, you're not listening to me!" "No, you are not listening to me."**

"You're not listening to each other!" Everyone shouted. 

**"I'm trying to make you CEO. Why won't you let me?" He says. Pepper sniffs his breath. "Have you been drinking?" "Chlorophyll. I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately." He says and thinks for a bit. "Yeah, done deal. Okay?" He confirms. He walks away to where YOU is holding champagne. "I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not. Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realized *He opens the bottle* it's you. It's always been you. *He pours 2 glasses. Pepper sits down, still shocked.* I thought there'd be a legal issue, but actually I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you. *He tries to hand pepper a glass, she doesn't take it* Congratulations? Take it, just take it." He says. She takes the glass. "I don't know what to think." " Don't think, drink. There you go."**

"Must be your life motto." Rhodey jokes. 

**Back in Russia a man hands Ivan something. Ivan opens it and its a fake ID, Passport and train ticket.**

Some people looked worried. 

**Pepper walks into a room, Happy and Tony are Boxing. "The notary's here! Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?" She asks. "I'm on Happy time." Tony calls and punches happy a few times. Happy goes to punch him, tony swipes his hand down and punches him in the face. "Sorry." He says. "What the hell was that?" Happy asks. "It's called mixed martial arts. It's been around for three weeks." "It's called dirty boxing, there's nothing new about it."**

"Well, most fighting isn't ever clean." Natasha said. 

**"Alright put them up, come on." Tony says. Natasha walks into the room, happy and Tony turn to look at her. "I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company." pepper says. Natasha walks over to her. " I need you to initial each box." She says. Happy hits Tony on the head. "Lesson one. Never take your eye off-" He starts. Tony kicks him across the ring. "That's it, I'm done." Happy says and takes his equipment off." Tony picks up his water bottle. "What's your name, lady?" He asks Natasha. "Rushman, Natalie, Rushman." She responds.**

"Hello Natalie." All of the avengers Greeted. "Hello." Natasha responded. 

**"Front and center. Come into the church." He says. "No You're seriously not gonna ask-" Pepper says. "It's no problem." Natasha says and starts walking to the ring. Tony lifts the rope so she can get in, she enters. Tony takes a drink from his water bottle. "What?" He asks. "Can you give her a lesson?" Tony asks Happy, then exits the ring. "No problem." Tony sits down next to Pepper. "Pepper?" "What?" "Who is she?" "She is from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that." "I need a new assistant, boss." "Yes, and I've got three excellent potential candidates. They're lined up and ready to meet you." "I don't have time to meet. I need someone now. I feel like it's her."**

"Hire me." Natasha whispered. 

**"No its not." Pepper says. "Have you ever boxed before?" Happy asks. "I have, yes."**

"An understatement." Clint said. 

**"What, like, the Tae Bo? Booty Boot Camp? Crunch? Something like that?" happy asks.**

"Happy don't taunt the woman." Tony scolded.

**"How do I spell your name Natalie?" Tony asks. "R-U-S-H-M-A-N." Natasha answers. Tony claps his, still gloved hands and a keyboard appears on the table. "What are you gonna google her now?" Pepper asks. "Wow, very impressive individual." He says and sees some pictures of her along with some information. "She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin?" He asks. "No one speaks Latin." Pepper says. "No one speaks Latin." He confirms. " It's a dead language. You can read Latin or you can write Latin, but you can't speak Latin."**

"It's useful for prefixes and things of that nature." Natasha says. 

**"Did you model in Tokyo? 'Cause she modeled in Tokyo." Tony says.**

"Oh I remember that, that was fun." Natasha said with a smile. 

**"Well-" "I need her. She's got everything I need." Natasha is looking at them, listening in on their conversation. "Rule number one, never take your eye off your opponent." Happy says and goes to punch her. Natasha takes his fist, twists it and flips over his head, knocking Happy down.**

"Damn, you have got to teach me how to do that." MJ said. Natasha smirked. 

**"Whoa." Tony says, impressed. "Oh my God! Happy!" Pepper yells. "That's what I'm talking about." "I slipped." Happy says. "You did?" Tony asks and walks over to the ring. "Yeah." Happy says. Tony hits a bell. "Looks like a TKO to me." Natasha gets out of the ring. "Just... I need your impression." She says to Tony. "You have a quiet reserve. I don't know, you have an old soul." "I meant your fingerprint." "Right." Tony puts his fingerprint on the paper. "So, how are we doing?" Pepper asks. "Great. Just wrapping up here. Hey. You're the boss." "Will that be all, Mr Stark?" Natasha asks. "No." "Yes that will be all Ms Rushman, thank you very much." Pepper says. Natasha leaves. "I want one." "No."**

"Don't we all, though." Clint joked. 

**'Monaco' appears on the screen.**

"Oh my God." Pepper and Natasha groaned. 

**Tony, Pepper and Happy all get out of a car and starts walking into a building. "You know, it's Europe. Whatever happens the next 20 minutes, just go with it." Tony says. "Go with it? Go with what?" Pepper asks. Natasha walks up to them. "Mr Stark?" She asks. "Hey." "Hello, how was your flight?" "It was excellent. Boy, its nice to see you." A waiter walks up to them, Tony takes two drinks from him. "We have one photographer from the ACM, if you don't mind. Okay?" Natasha says and takes the drinks back. "When did this happen?" Pepper asks. "What, you made me do it." "Made you do what?" A photographer starts taking pictures. "You quit. Smile. Look, right there. Stop acting constipated. Don't flare your nostrils."**

"Wow, camera advice from Tony Stark, I should be so honored." Pepper said, sarcastically.

**"You are so predictable." Pepper says. "That's the amazing thing." He says, the photographer walks away. Tony walks over to Natasha. "Right this way." She says. "You look fantastic." He compliments.**

"You really do." Peggy commented. 

**"Why thank you very much." Natasha says. "But that's unprofessional. What's on the docket?" "You have a 9:30 dinner." "Perfect, I'll be there at 11."**

"You plan to be late?" T'Challa asked. 

**"Absolutely." They walk over to a table. "Is this us?" "It can be." "Great, make it us." Tony says and walks off. Pepper walks up to Elon Musk. "Mr Musk, how are you?" She greets. "Hi, Pepper. Congratulations on the promotion." He says. "Thank you very much." Tony walks over. "Elon, how's it going. Those Merlin engines are fantastic." He says. "Thank you. Yeah, I've got an idea for an electric jet." "You do?" "Yeah." "Then we'll make it work." He says, then he and Pepper walk away. "You want a massage?"**

"That was random." Ned said.

**" Oh, God. No. I don't want a massage." "I'll have Natalie make an-" "I don't want Natalie to do-" "Don't want you tense. By the way, I didn't mean to spring this on you." "Thank you very much." "Green is not your best color." Justin's head pops out from behind a row of people. "Anthony? Is that you?" He asks. "My least favorite person on Earth." He whispers to Pepper. "Hey pal." Justin says as he approaches. "Justin Hammer." "How you doing? You're not the only rich guy here with a fancy car. You know Christine Everhart from** _**Vanity Fair** _ **. You guys know each other?" Christine comes into view.**

"Oh! Its her again." Scott said. 

**"Hi, yes." Christine says. "Yes." Pepper confirms. "Yes. Roughly." Tony says. "Yes, we do." Pepper adds. "BTW, big story. The new CEO of Stark Industries." Justin says to Christine. "I know, I know." She says. "Congratulations." "My editor will kill me if I don't grab a quote for our Powerful Women issue." "Oh." Pepper says, shocked. "Can I?" "Sure." "She's actually doing a big spread on me for** _**Vanity Fair** _ **. I thought I'd throw her a bone, you know. Right?" Justin says. "Right. Well, she did quite a spread on Tony last year."**

"I hope you don't mean that in the way I think you did." May said. 

**"And she wrote a story as well."**

May sighed, it was meant in the way she thought.

**Tony says. "It was very impressive." That was good." "It was very well done." "Thank you." Christine says. "I'm gonna go wash up." Pepper says and walks away. "Don't leave me." Tony says.**

"Oh, poor Tony." Pepper mocked.

**"Hey, buddy. How you doing?" Justin asks. "I'm alright." "Looking gorgeous." Another photographer comes into view. "Please this is tough." "Can I ask you- is this the first time-" Christine starts. "Fromage, say brie." Justin says and the photographer starts taking pictures. "-That you guys have seen each other?" She finishes her question. "God, that's so awful." Tony says, the photographer stops taking pictures. "Listen, is this the first time you guys have seen each other since the Senate?" She asks. "Since he got his contract revoked-" Tony says. "Actually, its on hold." Justin corrects. "-when you were attempting to- that's not what I heard. "What's the difference between "hold and "cancelled"?"**

"Wow, you really don't like him." Clint observed.

**"The truth?" Tony asks. "Yes, what is it?" Christine asks. " No. The truth is- Why don't we put that away? The truth is, I'm actually hoping to present something at your Expo."**

"Really wish he didn't do that." Rhodey mumbled. 

**"Well, if you invent something that works, I'll make sure to give you a slot." Natasha walks up to them. "Mr Stark?" she asks. "Yes." "Your corner table is ready." She and Tony start to leave. " I actually have a slot this year. Yes, I do." Justin says. "Hammer needs a slot, Christine." Tony calls. "We kid, yeah. We kid. We're kidders." Justin says.**

"Seriously, what is up with this guy?" Quill asked.

**Tony is in the bathroom, he does another blood test. 'Blood toxicity: 53%'.**

"That's not good." Rocket said. 

**He looks in the mirror. "Got any other bad ideas?"**

"What are you about to do?" Bruce asked. "Something stupid." Tony said. "No I gathered that, but what is the stupid thing?" 


	4. The stupid thing

**Tony is in a racing suit, a group of people following him. He jumps the fence to get onto the track.**

"You're an idiot." Bucky said. Tony's antics reminded him a bit of pre-serum Steve who was always getting himself into fights.

**This is playing on TV behind Justin who's still talking to Christine. "Tony and I... Tony... I love Tony Stark. Tony loves me. We're not competitors. Him being out of the picture created tremendous opportunities for Hammer Industries, you know? Everything that Tony and I do-" He turns around to watch the TV. "Well, what's the use of having-" Onscreen Tony says. "-is a healthy-" "and owning a race car-" "-competition." "If you don't drive it."**

"Are you trying to get yourself killed!?" Howard shouted. 

**"Is he driving?" Justin asks Christine. Pepper is sitting at a table alone watching this. "Natalie, Natalie!" She says and waves Natasha over. "Yes Ms Potts." "What do you know about this?" "This is the first I've known of it." "This- this cannot happen." "Absolutely. I understand. How can I help you?" "Where's Happy?" "He's waiting outside." "Okay, get him I need Happy." "Right away." She says ans walks off.**

"Really overdoing it on the politeness aren't you Nat?" Clint asked. Natasha glared at him. 

**Justin is still talking to Christine, who doesn't look like she's paying much attention. "Tony's- You know, he- We're not competitive. You know what I mean?" He asks. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, can you excuse me just one second?" "Just read me what you wrote." "I will, I will after." "Just read it back to me." "But I have to make one quick phone call." She stands up. "Where are you going?" " I've got some caviar coming." "This is great stuff. I'll be right back." She walks away.**

"What is she doing?" Gamora asked herself. 

**Tony starts revving his engine. The race starts. Ivan is shown, dressed like the rest of the pit crew, walking along side the track.**

"Oh no."

**It cuts back to the race. Pepper is watching it on the TV. Ivan walks onto the track. Pepper looks scared as she watches. Justin makes his way to the front of a crowd and watches. Ivan rips open his shirt and his arc reactor starts powering up. He powers up his weapon and it burns some of his shirt off. He slices part of a car in half, the car crashes. Happy walks into the room holding a red case, Pepper runs to him and they get in a car.**

"What is so special about the case?" Valkyrie. asked. "You'll see."

**Happy drives onto the race track, going in the opposite direction of all the cars. Tony drives up to where Ivan is. Ivan slices part of the car off and the car flips. Ivan starts advancing toward Tony. Tony takes off his helmet. A few cars come up behind Ivan, they crash into one another. Happy and Pepper are still driving. "Give me the case." She demands. "Here take it." He pushes it back to her. "Where's they key!?" "Its in my pocket." "Car!"**

"This is anxiety inducing." Ned whispered to Peter.

**Ivan slices another part of the car off, looking for Tony but he's not there. Tony comes up behind him and hits him on the head with a piece of metal. Ivan wacks him with one of his lightning strips a few times. Tony runs toward another car, but falls down. He notices the car is leaking gas so he stays there, waiting. Ivan walks toward him, smacking his lightning ropes on the ground. He gets close, Tony quickly rolls away as Ivan hits the car and it explodes.**

"That was a smart move." Natasha observes.

**Tony notices his sleeve is on fire, he beats it out. Happy drives up behind Ivan. Tony sees and jumps onto the fence, Happy hits Ivan with his car.**

"Hit me! Hit me with your car!" Shuri yelled. T'Challa looked at her, worried and confused. Peter, Ned and MJ laughed.

**Tony hops down from the fence. "Are you okay?" Happy asks. Pepper is screaming in the background. "Yeah, were you heading for me or him?" "I was trying to scare him." "Cause I can't tell." "Are you out of your mind!?" Pepper screams. "Better security." "Get in the car right now!" "I was attacked."**

"To be fair, you probably wouldn't have been attacked if you didn't decide to drive." Thor said. 

**"We need better security." He says and starts to walk away. "Get in the car!" Happy yells. "You're CEO. Better security measures. God, it's embarrassing." Tony says and walks behind the car to get in on the other side. "First vacation in two years." He scoffs and opens the door. Ivan cuts the door in half. Happy repeatedly slams into him. "I got him!" Happy yells. "Hit him again, hit him again! Football." Tony tony says. Pepper tries to hand him the case. "Take the case! Take it!" "Give him the case!" Happy yells. "Stop banging the car!" Pepper yells. Ivan starts hitting the car with his lightning whips. He slices a side of the car off. "Give me the case! Please! Come on!" Tony yells. Pepper throws him the case and it is revealed to be a suit.**

"So that's what the case was." Scott commented.

**Tony suits up and kicks the car away. He tries to shoot at Ivan, but Ivan hits him. Tony shoots at him a few times. Ivan tangles his lightning whips on Tony's neck and arms, then throws him to the side using the whips as leverage. Tony starts to tangle himself in the whips and walks toward Ivan, punches him and uses the whips to throw him to the ground. Te walks over to him, and pulls the arc reactor out. Police start to lift Ivan and take him away. Ivan spits blood at him. "You-You lose. You lose Stark." He says. Tony crushes the arc reactor.**

"What does he mean by 'You'll lose'?" T'Challa asked. "He knew something, not sure how he knew but- yeah." Tony answered, vaguely

**Justin is still watching this in TV, he smirks.**

"I knew there was something off about that guy!" Rocket shouted. 

**Tony is walking through a hallway, there are three men in suits with him, they're speaking French. "** _**We ran his prints. We got nothing back, not even a name.** _ **" One of the men says. "** _**Where are we going?** _ **"**

"You speak French?" Clint asked. "I speak a few languages, its useful when you're a businessman." Tony responded.

**"Over there. We're not even sure he speaks English. He hasn't said a word since he got here." "Five minutes." He says. One of the men opens a door. "Five minutes." The guard says, the door shuts behind Tony. Ivan is sitting on a bench, barely wearing any clothes, Tony starts walking over. "Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels. It's effective. Not very efficient. But it's a passable knock-off. I don't get it. A little fine tuning you could have made a solid pay check. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or gone onto the black market."**

"Why are you giving him ideas?" Hope asked. 

**Tony sits down. "You look like you got friends in low places." He finishes. "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed."**

"My grandfather sold fruit, I hardly think that passes as a thief or butcher." Tony said.

**"Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?" " My father. Anton Vanko."**

Tony glared at Howard. Yet another thing his fathers done that'c come back to bite him in the ass. "So this rivalry goes back in the bloodline?" Peter asked. "That's dumb, pushing your problems onto your kids I mean."

**"I've never heard of him." "My father is the reason you're still alive."**

"Part of the reason, he's still alive you mean. Anton didn't do that work by himself." Howard said. 

**"The reason I'm alive is 'cause you had a shot, you took it, you missed."**

"You two are talking about two different near death experiences." Wanda mumbled. 

**"Did I? If you can make God bleed, the people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you." "Where will you be watching the world consume me from? That's right. A prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap." Tony says and gets up to leave.**

"Don't taunt, do none of you learn your lesson. Taunting makes things worse." Maria said.

**"Hey, Tony. Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die."**

"I am Groot." "How did he know that?" Gamora translated. "I guess he knew that I had the arc reactor in my chest and since he knows how it works and palladium is a toxic element, he figured out that it was poisoning. Don't know how he knew it was in my chest."

**Senator Stern is talking on a TV. "It's just unbelievable. It proves that the genie is out of the bottle and this man has no idea what he's doing. He thinks of the Iron Man weapon as a toy."**

"I'm pretty sure I don't but please continue trying to make your point." Tony said, annoyed. 

**Tony walks in with a plate in his hand. "I was at a hearing where Mr Stark, in fact, was adamant that these suits can't exist anywhere else, don't exist anywhere else, never will exist anywhere else, at least for five to ten years, and here we are in Monaco realizing, these suits exist now." "Mute." Tony says, the TV mutes. "He should be giving me a medal, that's the truth." He says, sets the plate down and sits across from Pepper.**

"He did eventually." Tony said, Rhodey smirked. 

**"What is that?" She asks, referring to the plate. Tony takes the lid off the plate, it is revealed to be a burnt omelette.**

"Is that even edible?" Wanda asked. 

**"Did you just make that?" "Where do you think I've been for three hours?"**

"You spent three hours making that?" Rhodey asked, incredulously. 

**"Tony, what are you not telling me?"**

"Just that you're dying!" Pepper said, angrily. "Okay, I did try to tell you at one point but you wouldn't let me!"

**"I don't wanna go home. At all. Let's cancel my birthday party and- "**

"I wish you would have cancelled it." Pepper said. Natasha and Rhodey agreed.

**"We're in Europe. Let's go to Venice, Cipriani. Remember?" "Oh, yes." "It's a great place to be healthy."**

"Its a great place to die." Pepper muttered. 

**"I don't think this is the right time. We're in kind of a mess." " Yeah, but maybe that's why it's the best time. 'Cause then we can-" "Well, I think as the CEO I need to show up." " As CEO, you are entitled to a leave."**

"I don't think that applies when she hasn't even had the job for a week." Peggy commented. 

**"A leave?" " A company retreat." "A retreat? During a time like this?" "Just a ride. Well, I'm just saying, to recharge our batteries and figure it all out." "Not everybody runs on batteries Tony."**

Tony frowned, feeling oddly hurt by that.

**Ivan is in his cell, a police officer brings him a tray of food. He gets up to grab it. There's a note on it that says 'enjoy the potatoes' Ivan picks up the potatoes and it is revealed to be a bomb. The police officer opens the cell and someone else walks in. Ivan notices that the numbers on their shirts are the same. '6219.'**

"Wait so, is he about to bust out of prison?" Sam asked. 

**Ivan knocks the guy out. The police officer leaves a key for him.**

"Wait so the cop is helping him?" Scott asked.

**Ivan sticks the bomb on the wall and unlocks the door. He starts walking down the hallway, the police officer tries to stop him. Ivan punches him and twists his neck. The bomb goes off behind him. Ivan runs down the stairs, he gets surrounded by police officers. One of them puts a sack on his head. They throw him in a van.**

"Am I the only one who's like super confused right now?" Peter asked. 

**The door to the van opens and the sack is ripped off his head. They're in a very white room, there is a plane in the background. Justin Hammer is sitting at a table in the middle of the room.**

"Okay, not confused anymore." Peter said to himself.

**"Hey. There he is. There he is. *Ivan starts walking toward, Justin's security guards surround him, he is handcuffed* What an absolute pleasure. Welcome. Oh goodness gracious. Can we get the handcuffs off my friend here? *Someone takes the handcuffs off* Forgive me, I'm sorry. I'm such a huge fan of yours. I didn't want to make a first impression like this. He's not an animal. Come on. He's a human being. Thank you. We're fine. My name is Justin Hammer. I'd like to do some business with you. Please sit. Dig in. What do we have today Jack?" A waiter walks over to them. "We have some salmon carpaccio."**

"Wait, what exactly does Hammer want from Ivan?" Ned asked.

**"Salmon carpaccio. Anything you want here, we got it. I like my dessert first. I had this flown in from San Francisco. It's Italian though. Organic ice cream. I got a sweet tooth. Apparently you do too, for Tony Stark."**

"Um, that sounds weird." Shuri says.

**"What I saw you do to Tony Stark on that track, how you stepped up to him in front of God and everybody that was... Wow. You spoke to me with what you did. And I know that you knew that I'd be listening. This is why I couldn't bear to have you shipped off to God knows where. It would have been such a waste of talent. But if I might make a suggestion, you know, you don't just go and try to kill the guy. I think, if I may, you go after his legacy. That's what you kill. You and me, we are a lot alike in a lot of ways. The only difference between you and I is that I have resources. I think, if I may, you need my resources. Someone behind you, a benefactor. I'd like to be that guy."**

"Wait, so he's recruiting Ivan to make something for him to essentially kill your legacy?" Steve asked. 

**Ivan says something in Russian. "Okay. Do you speak English? Because I can get a translator. I don't know. Have you been understanding everything I'm saying?" "Very good, man." "Very good man?" "Very good, man." "Hey!" The cheers. "I want my bird." "A bird? You want a bird?"**

"No he wants his bird." Tony corrected. 

**"I want my bird." "I can get you a bird. I can get you ten birds." "Well, okay. Nothing's impossible. I could... Are we talking about... Is this a bird back in Russia?"**

"Where else would it be?" Sam said.

**Pepper and Natasha are sitting on the couch, both are talking on the phone. "Yes, but the fundamentals of the company are still very, very strong despite the events in Monaco." Pepper says. "Yes of course *Natasha covers the speaker and turns to Pepper* The AP wants a quote." Natasha says. Pepper covers the speaker of her phone. "Don't tell them, fax them-" Rhodey walks in. "Where is he?" He asks.**

"Someones in trouble." Clint joked. 

**"He doesn't want to be disturbed." Natasha says. "He's downstairs." Pepper says. On the TV, a reporter is speaking. "But his continuing erratic behavior may lead many people to ask themselves, 'Can this man still protect us?'" The reporter says. "Iron Man never stopped protecting us. The events in Monaco proved that."**

"So people are seeing Monaco two different ways, those being you driving and you beating up Ivan Vanko." Bruce said.

**Tony is in his lab, sitting in a car and looking at holograms of different newspapers referring to Ivan and Anton Vanko. "Query complete sir. Anton Vanko was a Soviet physicist who defected to the United States in 1963.However, he was accused of espionage and was deported in 1967. His son, Ivan, who is also a physicist, was convicted of selling Soviet-era weapons grade plutonium to Pakistan, and served 15 years in Kopeisk prison. No further records exist." JARVIS says. Rhodey puts in a code and enters the lab. "Tony, you gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now. Listen. I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these. They're gonna take your suits, Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years."**

"Technically, I said 5-10 years." 

**"Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore. Are you listening to me? *Tony looks at him* Are you okay?" Rhodey says. "Let's go." Tony says and gets out of the car, he starts to fall Rhodey helps him up. "Hey, man. Hey, hey! You all right?" Rhodey asks. "Yeah, I should get to my desk." Rhodey holds Tony up as they walk to the desk. "See that cigar box?" "Yeah." "Its palladium." Tony collapses into his chair, Rhodey opens the box. Tony removes the arc reactor, the core ejects. "Is that supposed to be smoking."**

"No!" Every scientist in the room shouted.

 **"If you must know, it's neutron damage. It's from the reactor wall." He hands the arc reactor to Rhodey, he takes the core out. "You had this in your body? *He sees the dark lines on Tony's neck* And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"**

"High tech crossword puzzle?" Pepper laughed.

**"Road rash." Tony takes the arc reactor from Rhodey and puts it back in his chest. "Thank you." He says and starts drinking something from a water bottle. "What are you looking at?" He asks. "I'm looking at you. You wanna do this whole lone gunslinger act and it's unnecessary. You don't have to do this alone."**

"You don't." Rhodey said for good measure. 

**"You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But you've gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing."**

"I really don't think you did." Vision said.


	5. Hammer is building drones or suits or something

**'Queens, New York' appears on screen.**

"Ah, home crap home." Ned, May, peter and MJ said at the same time. They got a few strange looks. 

**A limo pull up outside of Hammer industries. Hammer and Ivan are walking through a lab. "This is where we do it. This is my humble abode.You can work in absolute peace. Must be fun to be dead, right? No pressure. Here they are. I'm very excited. I may have done a few miscalculations and rushed the prototype into production. Go ahead, take a look around." Rows of suits are shown.**

"So he wants Ivan to make those work?" Bucky asked.

**Ivan puts on his glasses and starts typing on a computer. "You don't wanna do that. You'll be able to access that as soon as we generate some encrypted pass codes. Can we generate some encrypted pass codes? Get some of those encrypted pass codes, Jack. Never mind, I... Wow. Okay. Good stuff." Justin says. Ivan says something in Russian. "sorry?" "Software shit."**

"Well, he's not exactly wrong." Tony said. 

**"Uh-huh, well- You really blasted in past the firewall there. uh- *Ivan grabs a ladder and climbs up so he can see the head of the suits.* Let me show you where you're gonna be working primarily. Go ahead, take a look. Get a good look at that. That's something, isn't it? You know, those are really just for show and tell. They're $125.7 million a pop, so... Wait! *Ivan pulls the head off the suit* Oh gosh. Jesus Christ. Get somebody up here. That's where the pilot goes. I'm having a tough time finding volunteers. I'll take care of that, just leave it."**

"I wonder why he's having a hard time finding volunteers." Valkyrie said, sarcastically. 

**"What you want them do?" Ivan asks in somewhat broken English. "Well, long term, I want them to put me in the Pentagon for the next 25 years. I want to make Iron Man look like an antique. I wanna go to that Stark Expo, I wanna take a dump in Tony Stark's front yard. You know what I'm talking about?"**

"So he's gonna try and show you up on your own terf?" Steve asked for clarification. "More or less." Tony answered.

**"I can do that. No problem." "Yeah? Hey, fabulous! I love it. Hey, this is our guy. Didn't I tell you? I had a feeling."**

**The scene switches to Tony's bedroom. Tony is looking at the rash on his chest in a mirror.** **The screen reads 'palladium concentration 89%'.**

"That's not looking too hot." Happy commented.

**Natasha walks in with a box in her hands. "Do you know which watch you'd like to wear tonight, Mr Stark?" She asks. Tony buttons his shirt up. "I'll give them a look." Natasha sets the box down and starts mixing a drink. "I should cancel the party, huh?"**

"I should have." Tony sighed. 

**He asks, Natasha looks at him. "Probably." She walks over with a drink in her hands. "Yeah. 'Cause it's-" "Ill timed?" "Right, sends the wrong message." " Inappropriate." She hands Tony the drink, he sips it. "Is that dirty enough for you?" She asks. "Gold face, brown hand. The Jaeger. I'll give that a look. Bring them over." He says and sits on a chair. Natasha picks up the box and hands it to him. "I'll take that. Why don't you-" He takes the box from her, she sits on the arm of the chair and starts covering up the bruise by his eye. "I gotta say it. It's hard to get a read on you. Where are you from?" He asks. "Legal." "Can I ask you a question, hypothetically? Bit odd. If this was your last birthday party you were ever gonna have, how would you celebrate it?" She thinks for a moment. " I'd do whatever I wanted to do with whoever I wanted to do it with." She walks away, Tony finishes his drink.**

"Let the record show that I tried." Natasha said. 

**Tony is now drunk, wearing his suit, dancing. He fist bumps the DJ.**

Tony groaned.

**Cars pull up outside the house. Rhodey is in one of them, on the phone. "Yes, sir, I understand. No. No, sir, that will not be necessary. I'll handle it. Sir, I personally guarantee that within 24 hours, Iron Man will be back on watch." He walks into Tony's house and over to Pepper. "Hey Pepper." "I'm- I'm going to get some air." "What's wrong?"**

"What wasn't wrong?" Pepper asked.

**They walk over to where they can see Tony. "I don't know what to do." She says. "You've gotta be kidding me." Tony falls over.**

Rhodey slapped Tony on the back of the head. 

**"That's it, I'm making-" He starts. "No, no, no. Don't call anyone." "Pepper. This is ridiculous. I just stuck my neck out for this guy." " I know. I know. I get it. I'm gonna handle it, okay Just let me handle it." "Handle it. Or I'm gonna have to." Pepper walks over to Tony. "You know, the question I get asked most often is, "Tony, how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?" Just like that."**

"Dude." 

**Pepper walks up to him and takes the microphone. "Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?" She asks the crowd. "I love you." He says. "Unbelievable! Thank you so much. Tony, we all thank you so much for such a wonderful night. And we're gonna say good night now, and thank you all for coming." "No, no, no, we can't ... Wait, wait, wait. We didn't have the cake. We didn't blow out the candles."**

"You are a literal child." Bruce said. 

**"You're out of control, okay? Trust me on this, okay?" "You're out of control gorgeous."**

A few people cringed, that was not the time. 

**"It's time to go to bed. It's time." " Give me another smooch" " You're not going to be happy about this." "Come on, you know you want to."**

"Not at that moment, I did not." Pepper sighed. "I am so sorry." Tony said. 

**"You just peed in the suit." "I know. It has a filtration system." "It's not sexy." "You could drink that water."**

A chorus of 'Ew's' were heard.

**"Just send everybody home, okay? It's time to-" "If you say so." Pepper grabs the bottle and hands him the microphone. " Pepper Potts. She's right. The party's over. Then again, the party was over for me, like, an hour and a half ago. The after-party starts in 15 minutes. And if anybody, Pepper, doesn't like it, there's the door." He points to the door, accidentally shooting at it. A girl throws a bottle in the air, he shoots it, spraying glass ans liquid on the floor. Rhodey looks angry, then leaves.**

"I don't like where this is going." May said. 

**Another bottle is thrown, Tony shoots it. Rhodey walks down the stairs and into Tony's lab. Tony looks into a mirror and shoots at something behind him. Rhodey gets into the suit. Another girl appears with a watermelon she throws it in the air and Tony shoots at it, using his chest beam. Rhodey appears behind everyone. "I'm only gonna say this once, get out." He says, everyone starts running.**

Rhodey and Tony looked anywhere but the screen and each other. 

**"You don't deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!" He says to Tony.**

Rhodey and Tony cringed. 

**Tony turns to the DJ. "Goldstein?" "Yes, Mr Stark?" "Gimme a phat beat to beat my buddy's ass to."**

"Oh no."

**"I told you to shut it down." Rhodey says as he grabs Tony's chest from behind. Tony blasts them through the wall, they're now in the gym. Tony gets up and starts walking away. " Now, put that thing back where you found it before someone gets hurt." Rhodey throws something, it hits Tony in the back of the head. Tony turns around, Rhodey throws something else, it hits a glass door.**

"You two are really about to do this?" Clint asked with a frown.

**Tony picks a barbell and knocks Rhodey across the room. He flies over to him and lands beside him. "Sorry, pal, but Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick."**

"Are you sure about that?" Rhodey asked. 

**Rhodey hits Tony with a pipe. "Sidekick this." Rhodey kicks him and he goes flying through the ceiling, they're now in the bedroom. Rhodey flies in through the hole. "Had enough?"**

"Knowing Tony, he hasn't." Pepper said, tightly.

**The scene switches to all of the guests outside. Pepper is standing in the middle of the room. "Natalie!" "Ms Potts." "Don't you "Miss Potts" me! I'm on to you. You know what? Ever since you came here-" Tony and Rhodey fall through the ceiling. Happy runs inside and grabs Pepper. "Pepper, Get out of here. Get out of here now." Natasha runs off. Tony and Rhodey are still fighting, everyone is watching. "You want it? Take it!"Rhodey and Tony start punching each other. He turns to the crowd and growls, they scatter. Rhodey picks up a sink and wacks Tony with it, the force knocks him into the fire place. The raise their hands at each other.**

"Oh my God." 

**"Put your hand down." Rhodey says. "You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?" " We don't have to do this, Tony." "You wanna be the War Machine, take your shot."**

"Is that how you got your name?" Wanda asked. 

**"Put it down!" "You gonna take a shot?" "Put it down!" "No!" Drop it Tony!" " Take it!" They shoot, their blasts meet sending a shock wave through the room, breaking the glass. Tony and Rhodey are knocked back by the force. Tony sits up, looks around and watches as Rhodey flies off.**

"Where did you take it?" Loki asked. 

**'Edwards Air Force base, Mojave, California' appears on screen. "Edwards Tower, this is Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, inbound from three miles east at 5,000 feet-" Rhodey says over a radio. Rhodey flies past the windows. A bunch of soldiers look at him. He lands.**

"Tony, I'm sorry, if I had known what was gonna happen I wouldn't have done it-." Rhodey starts. "Its fine, you did the right thing, I know why you did it, its fine." 

**A bunch of soldiers start crowding him. "Colonel." Major Allen greets. "Major." "Wow." "Yeah. Let's take it inside." "Clear the area." The group starts walking inside.**

**Tony is eating donuts, the camera pans out to show that he is sitting inside of a giant doughnut.**

"Doughnut-ception." Peter whispered.

**Nick Fury is watching. "Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut."**

Everyone laughs. "What? When am I ever gonna get to say that sentence again?" Fury asked.

**Tony and Fury are seated at a table inside. "I told you I don't wanna join your super-secret boy band."**

"Super secret boy band?" Natasha asked, emphasis on 'boy'. "And girl." Tony added.

**"No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?" "It's- It's- It's- I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye?"**

"The patch." Carol said, Fury glared at her. 

**"Honestly I'm a bit hung over."**

"A bit?" Pepper asked. "Okay, a lot."Tony corrected. 

**"I'm not sure if you're real of if I'm having-" "I am very real, I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet." "Just my luck. Where's the staff here?" Fury looks at the rash on his neck. "That's not looking so good." "I've been worse."**

"Have you?" Fury asked. "I've come face to face with death a few times, didn't see how this was any different."

**Natasha walks in. "We've secured the perimeter but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer." Tony looks at her. "Huh. You're fired." "That's not up to you." She sits next to Fury. "Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff."**

"Hi agent Romanoff." Everyone mimicked from earlier. "Hi." Natasha greeted.

**"Hi." He says. " I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury." She says. "I suggest you apologize." "You've been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better-" Fury starts, Tony cuts him off. "You don't know better, I didn't give it to him, he took it." " Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?" He turns to Natasha. "Is that possible?" "Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage."**

"So you did give it to me?" Rhodey asked. "No I didn't, you took it, but you were allowed to take it." Tony replied. "That makes zero sense. 

**"What do you want from me?" Tony asks. "What do we want from you? What do you want from me? *Natasha gets up and walks away* You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with." Natasha comes back with an injection in her hands. "Hit him." She injects Tony, then grabs his face and looks at his neck.**

"What did you inject him with?" Bruce asked. 

**"Oh, God, are gonna steal my kidney and sell it? *the rash goes down* Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds? What did she just do to me?" He asks. "What did we just do for you? That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work." "It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms."**

"Ok, now I'm really getting curious as to how you fixed this." Quill said.

**"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix." Fury says.**

"It was easy enough once I had what I needed to do so." Tony commented. 

**"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." "Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."**

A few people were confused, what hadn't he tried?

**Justin walks up to where Ivan is working. "Hey hey hey special delivery, candy gram." He says. Ivan comes down from his workspace. "I brought you something. Oh yeah." He takes the cloth off, it is revealed to be a cage with a bird in it. "We got you the bird, pal." "This is not my bird."**

"How can he tell?" Rocket asked. "Well its his pet, why wouldn't he be able to tell if its his?" Bruce said. 

**"What do you mean? That's the bird. This is the bird. Yeah, pulled a lot of strings to get this bird. This is a great bird." "It's a beautiful bird." Jack says. "We got this bird all the way from Russia." "Hey, man, this is not my bird." "Well, listen, even if it's not the bird, I mean, this is a gorgeous bird. I mean, you know, look, don't get so attached to things. Learn to let go."**

"He's a hypocrite." Bucky said. "How?" Steve asked. "Think about it, he's telling Ivan to let it go but he can't let go of whatever grudge he has against Stark."

 **Justin looks at the suit Ivan was working on. "Wait a minute. Jack, what is that? Is that- That's not a helmet. What is that? *He walks up to the suit and takes the head off* Um, Ivan, What's this? *He hands the head to Jack* Jack. Is that a helmet? It doesn't look like a helmet to me. How... How are you supposed to get a head in there? Jack, could you put your head in there?" Justin asks. "No." Jack responds. "Try to put your head in there. Go ahead. Try to put your head in there." Jack tries to put his head in it. "See, Ivan? He can't put his head in there. That's... That's not a helmet. It's a head. I need to put a guy in there. I need to fit a person in that suit. You understand?" "Drone better." Ivan says. "What? Drone better? Why is drone better? Why is drone better?"**

"Well for one there's no room for human error." Clint said. 

**"People make problem. Trust me. Drone better."**

"Huh." 

**"Ivan, you know, I like you. I got you the bird. You said, "No problem." That's what you said to me. You said, "No problem." Now I need suits. The government wants suits. Like Iron Man. You understand? That's what the people want. That's what's gonna make them happy." "Hey, man. Don't get too attached to things. Learn to let go."**

"Damn, using his own words against him." Scott laughed.

**"These drones better steal the show, Ivan. You understand? Better rock my world, Ivan."**

"Well they certainly did that." Pepper said.


	6. New Element

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this reaction may seem a little bitter. I wasn't in the best mood while I was writing it and I'm too lazy to go back and edit.

**Rhodey and the general are standing next ti each other looking at the suit. "Unbelievable. This ought to get the Senate off my ass. It's functional?" "Fully mission-capable."**

"I wouldn't say that." Tony said.

**"Good. Get Hammer down here to weaponize it."**

"Not him." Rocket yelled. 

**"Sir." Rhodey protests. "Justin Hammer's making a weapons presentation at the Expo. We'd like this to introduce it." " Sir, I don't believe that the Expo-" "Colonel, the world needs to see this fast. We've got to make this happen."**

"The world needs to see that my friend took my suit and you had it weaponized?" Tony asked, sarcastically. 

**"Yes, General, but-" "It's also an order." "Yes sir" "Good work, Colonel. You've made your country proud." "Thank you sir."**

**Tony and Fury are sitting in the Wreckage of Tony's living room. "That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology." Fury states. "No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my-" "No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery." "Just him, or Anton Vanko in on this too?" "Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fueled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco." "You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?"**

"Yeah, what hasn't he tried?" Quill asked. 

**"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started."**

"Wish he would have told me that in person." Tony muttered. 

**"He said that?" "Mhm, Are you that guy? Are you? 'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."**

"That sounds like a line in a cheese romantic comedy." Clint said. 

**"I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan."**

Howard frowned. 

**"What do you remember about your dad?" "He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy who's happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school."**

Howard frowned more, he didn't know that's what Tony thought of him, hadn't realized how his decisions would effect his son when he got older. 

**"That's not true." "Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did." " As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD."**

"You were?" Thor asked. "So was she." Howard said and pointed to Peggy.

**Two agents drop a case in front of Tony. Fury stands. "I got a 2:00." He says. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's this?" Tony asks. "Okay, you're good, right?" " No, I'm not good." "You got this? Right? Right?" "Got what? I don't even know what I'm supposed to get."**

"But you did eventually, that's what matters." Fury said.

**"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. You remember Agent Coulson, right? And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you." Fury leaves. "We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck." Natasha says and leaves. "Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice." Tony says to Coulson. "I'm not here for that. I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games-"**

"Why didn't you do anything when I left?" Tony asked. "I had a feeling I knew why so I let it slide, I was correct as well." Coulson said. 

**I will tase you and watch** _**Super-nanny** _ **while you drool into the carpet. Okay?" "I think I got it, yeah."**

"But why super-nanny?" Peter asked. "Its one of my favorites." Coulson said.

**Back at the air force base, people are dismantling the suit. Rhodey carefully takes the arc reactor out. "Think this is the power source?" Major Allen asks. Major, this is not a scientific exercise. Let's just focus on arming it, all right?" "Yes sir." Justin walks in, two people behind him are wheeling a cart over. "Oh, yes! Oh, yes, yes, yes. Is it my birthday? You got it. What did you do? What did you do? Is this what I think it is?" He asks when he reaches the table. "Yes it is. Hammer, I want to know what you're gonna do for us." "What am I going to do for you? Well, the first thing I'm gonna do for you is I'm gonna upgrade your software. And then, second, I think I should-"**

"I don't think upgrades from that guy would be at all useful." Peggy said. 

**"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about firepower." "Well, you're talking to the right guy."**

"I'm really not."

**Justin is now wearing white gloves. He pulls out a small gun. Claridge Hi-Tech, semi-automatic, 9mm pistol. Too downtown? I agree. *He sets the gun on the table and picks up a shotgun* M24 shotgun, pump action. Five-round magazine. You know what? You're not a hunter. What am I talking about? I'm getting rid of it. *He puts it down and pulls out another gun* This is the FN-2000 from Belgium. They do make something better than waffles. It's beautiful, But I can tell this isn't disco enough for you, so I'm gonna put it right here. *He puts it down and pulls out a grenade launcher* You're looking at a Milkor 40mm grenade launcher. Tear gas, smoke. Hippie control. You're tough. Let me tell you something. Size does matter. Don't let anyone tell you different. *He puts it down and pulls out a mini gun* This is an M134 7.62 Minigun. Six invidual barrels. The torso taker, powder maker. Our boys in uniform call in Uncle Gazpacho or Puff the Magic Dragon. Okay. *He puts it down and pulls out something else* These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethlyenetrinitamine DX burst. It's capable of busting the bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it would write a book. A book that would make** _**Ulysses** _ **look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's** _**Third.** _ **My** _**Pieta.** _ **It's completely elegant. It's bafflingly beautiful. And it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it the Ex-Wife." He says.**

"How mad was she?" Natasha asked. "Not mad enough." Rhodey mumbled, remembering what happened when he used it.

**"That's the best I got. Are we gonna do this? Give me something here. You're like a sphinx. I can't read you." "I think I'll take it." "Which one?" "All of it." "All of it."**

**Tony sets a case. 'Property of H Stark' is printed on it. He opens it, and pulls out blueprints for the arc reactor he unrolls them and looks at it. He sets them to the side and pulls out newspaper clippings that read 'Soviet Scientist Vanko Defects.' Then he pulls out two film reels. He plays one of them.**

Howard smiled a bit, Tony was finally going to finish his project.

**On screen a model of the first arc reactor is shown, Howard is leaning against his desk, he starts speaking. "Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath- *Tony is flipping through a notebook.* -and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here. *Tony is messing with a device.* City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of... I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here."Onscreen Howard says. A young Tony pops up behind Howard, he takes something off of the Expo model.**

"Aw, you were a cute kid." Pepper said. 

**Onscreen Howard looks behind him "Tony, what are you doing back there? *Adult Tony draws his attention back to the screen at the mention of his name* Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go. *A man picks little Tony up and takes him away* Alright I think we got- I'll- I'll I'll come in and- " Howard has a glass of whiskey in his hand. "Are you waiting on me?" The man behind the camera asks. Howard drinks and holds up 1 finger. "So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I'd like to personally show you my ass."**

A few of Tony's friends laughed. That was such a Tony thing to say, it was weird hearing it come from his dad. Howard just groaned. 

**Tony is chewing on a pen as he watches."I'd like to... I can't... This is... I can't... We have this, don't we? This is a ridiculous way... Everything- *He goes back to flipping through Howard's notes, he reaches the end and tosses the book and his device away, he puts his head in his hand and grabs his drink off the table across from him* -Is achievable through technology" Tony takes a drink. Onscreen Howard walks back over to the Expo model. "Tony.- *Tony directs his attention back to the screen* -You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you." Onscreen Howard says. Tony looks like he's about to cry.**

Off screen Tony had a similar expression on his face, despite having already seen the film. Pepper hugged him.

**Tony is driving down the street in a white Audi. He pulls up to a guy selling strawberries.**

Pepper sighed.

**The vendor says something in Spanish. "** _**How much** _ **?" Tony asks. "6$ six." The vendor says. "I don't have any dough. Here." He says and hands the vendor his watch.**

"Tony." Rhodey sighed.

**"No, sir, that's too much." "No, it's fine. Take that. It's fine" "No, señor." "Take it, take it *The vendor tries to hand him the box * I don't like people handing me things. If you just drop that there, that'd be great." The vendor drops the box in the car. " Are you Iron Man?" Tony starts to pull away. "Sometimes."**

"What? Sometimes?" Quill asked. "Yes, I'm Tony all the time but I'm only Iron Man when I'm wearing the suit." 

**"We believe in you!" The vendor yells as Tony drives away.**

"That's always nice to hear." Tony said.

**Pepper is sitting at her desk, on the phone. "It was an illegal seizure of trademark property." She says. Her PA walks in. "Ms Potts? Mr Stark is here. *Tony walks in with the box of strawberries in his hand* He refuses-" "I don't, its fine. I'll just be a second." The PA leaves. " Listen, it's our position that Stark has and continues to maintain propriety ownership of the Mark II platform." Pepper continues talking on the phone. The TV is on a reporter is talking. "When Mr Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America." "No the suit belongs to us." Pepper says.**

"She's right, it does." Tony said.

**"We trusted that he would look out for us." The reporter continues. "Yeah, but you're not-" "He obviously did not. "Burt." "And now we learn that his secretary-" "Yes, it does." "-a woman named Virginia "Pepper" Potts, has been appointed as CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications?" "No." "Miss Potts has done nothing to manage this terrible-"**

"Oh really?" Pepper asked.

**"Mute." Tony says, the TV mutes. Tony walks around the office. "No... Burt... Burt... Burt, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this." Tony looks through one of the boxes. "I'll get this stuff out of here." He says quietly. "Well, then, tell the President to sign an order. We'll talk about it at the Expo." Tony pulls a sheet, uncovering half of the Expo model. "Hammer's giving some presentation tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark be there?" Tony pulls a chair over to the desk. "Will I?" He asks. "No, he will not. Bye." "I would like to be."**

"I was."

**"Got a minute?" He asks. "No." "Come on, you just got off the phone. You're fine. 30 seconds." "29-28."**

People groaned. 

**"I was just driving over here, and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I'm not" "You didn't come here to apologize?"**

"It wasn't the main reason I was there, I had a list of reasons."

**"Look, that goes without saying, and I'm working on that. But I haven't been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good. Can I move this? *He looks at an object on her desk that's moving* This is crazy. It's like a Ferris wheel, going. I'm trying to get some-" "No." "Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express... And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don't care... I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to... Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it." "Let me just stop you right there."**

"He's trying to tell you that he's dying!"Almost everyone shouted. "I know that now!" Pepper shouted back.

**"Because if you say "I" one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?" "Yes." "People are relying on you to be Iron Man and you've disappeared, and all I'm doing is putting out your fires and taking the heat of it. I am trying to do the job that you were meant to do. Did you bring me strawberries? Did you know that there's only one thing on Earth that I'm allergic to?"**

A few people hissed. 

**"Allergic to strawberries. This is progress Pepper. I knew there was a correlation between you and this." "I need you" "I need you too." "To leave now." "That's what I'm trying to-" Natasha enters with Happy. "Hi come on in." "Wheels up in 25 minutes." "Thank you." "Anything else, boss?" Happy asks. "I'm good hap-" Tony starts. "No, I'll be just another minute." Pepper says. "I lost both the kids in the divorce."**

A few people laughed at that.

 **"Are you blending in well here, Natalie? Here are Stark Enterprises? Your name is Natalie, isn't it? I thought you two didn't get along?" "No. That's not so." "It's just me you don't care for."**

"It is." Tony said. 

**"No? Nothing?" "Actually, while you're here maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of the personal belongings." "Absolutely. *Pepper and Happy leave* I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut." " Boy, you're good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You just tear things... You're a triple impostor. I've never seen anything like you. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?" Natasha says something in Latin. "Which means? Wait. What? What did you just say?" "It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected." She says and leaves. Tony puts some things under the object on the desk to stop it from moving, it doesn't work. He picks up the strawberries, eats one and throws the rest away.**

"Waste of perfectly good strawberries." Scott said.

**He looks back at the Expo model. 'The key to the future' is engraved on a small piece of metal on the outside of it. Tony rips the sheet the rest of the way off. He circles his hand around his eye and looks at it. He has it stacked in 4 parts in the passenger side of his car.**

"What are you going to do with it?" Drax asked.

**Tony is in his lab, the Expo model is reassembled. Tony blows some dust off of it. "JARVIS could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulitable projection."**

"Wait Jarvis as in Edwin Jarvis?" Howard ask. Tony nodded. "Your butler?" Peggy asked. "You named you AI after him?" Howard asked. "Yes, I liked Jarvis so I thought I'd keep him around."

**A blue outline slowly covers the top of the model, Tony snaps his fingers as he waits. "1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, sir." JARVIS says. "How many buildings are there?" Tony lifts the hologram projection. "Am I to include the Belgian waffle stands?" JARVIS asks.**

"Again with the sarcasm in this AI." Clint muttered.

**Tony moves the model. "Uh, that was rhetorical, just show me." He says and sets the model down. He snaps his fingers and points, the model starts spinning in the direction he pointed in and turns so its right side up, facing the back wall. Tony grabs a chair and sits in front of the model. "What does that look like to you JARVIS? Not unlike an atom, in which case the nucleus would be here *He touches a spot on the small globe in the center of the model. * Highlight the uni-sphere. *The globe turns yellow, Tony takes it in his hand* Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them." He says. "What is it you're trying to achieve, sir?" JARVIS asks.**

"Yeah, what are you doing?" Strange asked. 

**"I'm discovering- uh- correction I'm rediscovering a new element I believe."**

Howard smiled, he was right when he said Tony could finish what he started. "So that is the element you used in place of palladium?" Bruce asked. 

**"Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees. Parking lots, exits, entrances. *He starts flicking things away*structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework." Things start flying toward the uni-sphere it starts to look more like an element atom. Tony claps his hands and the element expands.**

"Holy shit."

**Tony looks around it. "Dead for almost 20 years, still taking me to school." Tony says and smiles. He claps his hands again and the element shrinks, he holds it between his fingers."The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium." JARVIS says. "Thanks dad." "Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesize."**

"Its not technically impossible, its just very difficult if you don't know what you're doing." Shuri said. "I have a feeling, you're about to make it not impossible." Bruce said. 

**"Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We're back in hardware mode."**

"I was right."


	7. I think I did alright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is way longer than all of the others, I couldn't find a good place to cut it off without it being awkward.

**Tony Smashes a wall with a sledge hammer a few times, he drops it.**

"Okay but honestly, that looks fun." Peter said.

**He uses a jackhammer to uncover a panel of electric switches, he takes the door off and attaches some wires. He uses the jackhammer again to make a hole in the ceiling, hr throws the wires through the hole. He wheels some crates and opens them, he lifts a metal tube and attaches it to the wall. Some time later all of the tubes are connected, resting on piles of random objects.**

"You built a particle accelerator in your basement?" Bruce asked. 

**Coulson puts in a code and enters the lab. "I heard you broke the perimeter." He says, one of the bots turns toward him. "Uh yeah, that was like three years ago, where have you been." "I was doing some stuff."**

"Wow, 10/10 explanation." Shuri said.

**"Yeah, well, me too and it worked. I'm playing for the home team, Coulson. You and all your fabulous furry freak brothers."**

"Uh, rude." 

**"Now are you gonna let me work or break my balls?" Coulson walks toward a box and pulls out something that looks like Captain America's shield. Tony takes a blue bag off of something. "What's this doing here?" Coulson asks.**

"Once a fanboy, always a fanboy." Natasha said.

**Tony looks at him to see what he's talking about and sets down the thing he's holding. "That's it, bring that to me." He says. "You know what this is?" "Its exactly what I need to make this work. *He takes the shield* Lift the coil, go go, Put your knees into it. *Coulson lifts the coil* There you go and- *Tony slides the shield underneath the coil.* Drop it, drop it." Coulson drops the coil, Tony grabs a level and sets it on the coil. "Perfectly level. I'm busy, what do you want?" "Nothing, goodbye. I've been reassigned.Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."**

Everyone subtly looked to Thor.

**"Fantastic, land of enchantment." "So I'm told." "Secret stuff?" "Something like that. Good luck." "Bye, thanks." They shake hands. "We need you." "Yeah, more than you know." "Not that much." Coulson leaves.**

"Debatable." Tony said.

**The lights in the lab are turned off. Tony is wearing glasses and carrying a wrench. He puts a prism in the particle accelerator and rotates it. He sticks a key into it something and turns it on, the lights start dimming more. Tony takes his shirt off. " Initializing prismatic accelerator." JARVIS says. Tony tries to turn the wheel with his hands. "Approaching maximum power." The wheel won't move,it starts shaking. He grabs the wrench and uses it to turn the wheel. The laser starts burning things in its path, cutting a large metal container in half before it reaches the small triangle, the triangle starts to glow blue, Tony turns off the machine. "That was easy."**

"How was that easy?" Quill asked.

**He ducks under the coils and walks toward the glowing object, he tosses his glasses on the table and sits down. He uses a pair of pliers to lift the triangle. "Congratulations sir. You have created a new element."**

Howard gave onscreen Tony a fond look, then turned his head to real Tony and gave the same look. 'Maybe not all Americans are stupid, most are, but there are a few smart ones.' Shuri thought.

**Tony puts the new element into an arc reactor. "Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics."**

"I do wish you would have let me finish the tests." Vision said. "Do I know you, I feel like I know you." Tony asked, a few people nodded in agreement. "Oh, you do actually, you just don't meet me for a few years." Vision responded.

**Ivan is building his own arc reactor. He's talking on the phone with Justin, who's golfing. "Hey Ivan. I got Senator Stern here. Thought we'd swing over and look at some of the drone designs." "The drone is not going to be ready." " Not ready? What do you mean?" " I can make presentation, not demonstration." "What the hell is the difference?" "Presentation. No fly. No shoot."**

"But they did both of those things." Rhodey said.

**"Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. What can you make them do? I mean, this is a weapons demonstration." " I can make salute." "You can make salute? What do you mean "make salute"? What the hell does that mean Ivan?"**

"Does he not know what a salute is, he works almost directly with the army how does he not know?" Sam asked.

**"This is not what we agreed to, okay? You promised me suits and then you promised me drones." Ivan has remade his lightning whips.**

"Oh no."

 **Justin and two men in suits are walking through a lab, they walk into the room where Ivan is. He is sitting with a bird. "Hey there he is, the bird man Now you like the bird. Is that right? Is that your bird? I'm confused. You said it wasn't, but now it looks like you're the best of pals. You love that bird, don't you? You know what? Take the bird." A man grabs the bird and puts it in a sack.**

"Okay that is just wrong." Scott said.

 **"Take his pillows too. Both of them. *a man takes the pillows* And his shoes. Take his shoes. *A man takes his shoes off* I took your stuff. How does that make you feel? Do you feel bad? Good. 'Cause that's how I feel! We had a contract. I saved your life and you give me suits. That was our deal. And you did not deliver. I don't know if you're a genius or a fraud. I don't know what you are."**

"I hate to say it but the guy is a genius." Tony said, a few people made noises of agreement.

**"Something really, really great fell into my lap. And if it hadn't, I'd be at your mercy tonight. Now I have a piece of Stark tech that I pimped out myself. And now your overpriced paperweights and gonna look like a backdrop to my demonstration. Do you dig what I'm getting at here?" Ivan says something in Russian. " I don't know if you know this, but I don't speak Russian!"**

"He knows that, that's why he's using it." Natasha said.

**"I'm gonna leave now. I'm gonna go to the Expo. Maybe I'll even get laid."**

"That's wishful thinking." Pietro said. "I'm gonna be the one to say it but that guy has a very punch-able face." Hope said.

**"You see these guys? They're your babysitters. They are not to be trifled with. When I get back, we're gonna renegotiate the terms of our agreement. And you're gonna make good on our arrangement because if you don't, you're gonna be exactly what you were when I found you, a dead man. You got that? Maybe you can watch me on TV."**

"I feel like this guy is just full of empty threats." Clint commented.

**Tony is sitting on a chair in his lab. "Dummy, You, can we clean up this mess? You're killing me. You know I don't-" He says. A phone starts ringing. "Incoming call from a blocked number, sir." JARVIS says. " My phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely. Coulson. How's the Land of Enchantment?"**

"Why did you think it was me?" Coulson asked.

**"Hey, Tony, how you doing? I double cycle." "You what?" "You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice."**

"And that is why we don't give evil people advice, even if they're in jail." Pepper said. 

**" You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy." "You too." Tony mutes his microphone. "Trace him." He tells JARVIS. "Now, the true history of Stark name will be written." "Jarvis, where is he?" "Accessing the Oracle grid. Eastern Seaboard." JARVIS says, a map appears on a computer screen. "What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes."**

"Good thing he didn't get too right?" Rhodey asked. 

**"Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out." "Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs." JARVIS says. "I hope you're ready." Ivan says and hangs up. "Call trace incomplete." Tony looks around and sees an advertisement for Justin's demonstration at the Expo, he then looks over at the arc reactor, he puts it in his chest (Aggressively I might add). "Sir." JARVIS protests. "You want to run some tests, run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now." " We are unclear as to the effects." "I don't want to hear it JARVIS! *he coughs as the reactor gains power* That tastes like coconut. And metal. Oh wow, yeah!"**

"You can... taste that?" Drax asked.

**The scene switches to the Expo. Happy, Natasha and Pepper get out of a car. "I'll keep the car down here, alright?" Happy says. "Thank you, Happy." Pepper says, her and Natasha walk into the building. "-Justin Hammer. His presentation will begin shortly in the main pavilion." An announcer says. Justin does a little dance as he gets on stage.**

People laughed at him.

**"Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Thanks for coming. *Pepper and Natasha look at the stage in confusion* Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair. That's not right. And it's just too bad."**

"It is fair and it is right, seeing as what might happen if that technology gets in the wrong hands." Rhodey said.

**"Regardless, it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed the headlines the world over. Well, today, my friends, the press is faced with quite a difficult problem. They are about to run out of ink.Get that out of here. Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer drone. Army! *A set of drones rise from the ground* Navy! *Another set* Air Force! *Another set* Marines! *Another set* Yeah! Yeah! Woo! That's a hell of a lot better than some cheerleaders, let me tell you."**

"I think, just this once, I'd prefer the cheerleaders." Pepper sighed. 

**"But as revolutionary as this technology is, there will always be a need for man to be present in the theater of war *Ivan is doing something on a computer*Ladies and gentlemen, today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes."**

Rhodey sighed.

**"What?" Pepper whispers as she watches. Rhodey salutes, the drones on stage copy him. " For America and its allies, Hammer Industries is reporting for-" Tony flies in and lands in front of Rhodey. "We got trouble." He says. "Tony, there are civilians present. I'm here on orders. Let's not do this right now." Tony walks over to him. "Give them a wave." He says. "Hey, all right. Yeah." Justin says. " All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes." "Yeah, I tried that. I got tossed around your house, remember?"**

"Oof." Shuri said.

**"Listen, I think he's working with Vanko." "Vanko's alive?" Tony walks up to Justin. "Where is he?" He asks. "what?" "Where's Vanko?" "Who?"**

"Oh don't play dumb now, its too late for that." Clint said.

**"Tell me." He says, impatiently. "What are you doing here man?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rhodey says, the gun on his shoulder is aimed at Tony. "Is that you?" "No, I'm not doing that. That's not me. I can't move. I'm locked up. I'm locked up! *The drones aim at him as well* Get out of here. Go! This whole system's been compromised!" He yells. Tony flies away. "Let's take it outside." He says and flies through the roof, the drones and Rhodey start shooting, the glass from the roof starts breaking and falling.**

"This isn't good."

**Rhodey starts to fly. "No no!" He yells, then starts flying, the drones follow. "JARVIS break in, I need to own him." Tony says. "Yes, sir." "Tony, Tony, I'm locked on. I have target lock." Rhodey says, he's following Tony and the drones are following him. "On what?"**

"What do you think?" Almost everyone in the room asked.

**"On you! *He starts shooting* Tony on your six." They fly by a building, Rhodey shoots out all the glass as he flies by. The drones that are still on stage start to walk off and out of the building. Justin walks backstage. "What's going on? What's happening?" He asks. "The software's been overridden." One of the guys says. "What? What do you mean it's been overridden? What does that mean?" "I think he slaved the drones." "That's impossible. Call the guards." "All the phones are down sir." Jack says. "Well, then call their... Call their cells."**

"Idiot."

 **"Their cell phones are not working either sir." Jack says. "He's locked us out of the mainframe." The man says. Pepper walks in with Natasha. "Who's locked you out of the mainframe?" She asks. "Please, please, go away. Go away. I've got this handled."**

"I am groot." "You're right, he doesn't."

**"Have you now?" she asks. "Yes, I do. In fact, if your guy hadn't showed up, this wouldn't be happening. So, please, now go away. Thank you. *He turns to the man* Listen, we got to get these bitches out of here. What?" Natasha grabs him and slams him onto the table. "You tell me who's behind this. Who's behind this?" She asks. "Ivan, Ivan Vanko." "Where is he?" "He's at my facility." Natasha lets him go and walks away. Pepper calls someone. "I need NYPD please." She says. Justin walks over to her. "No, no, honey. Don't call the authorities." He pleads. Pepper ignores him. "Okay right away, right away. *She covers the speaker with her hand* Step aside, step aside *She walks over to the man* Tell me everything you know. Go."**

"Scary."

**Tony is still being chased by Rhodey and the drones, Rhodey continues shooting at him. "How we doing JARVIS?" He asks. "Remote reboot unsuccessful." JARVIS says.**

"Shit." 

**The drones that were onstage make their way out of the building, they start firing. Ivan watches this from his room, a small smile on his face.**

"Psychopath." Ned whispered.

**Natasha walks out of the building. "Nobody's answering the phone. What's going on?" He asks "Get in the car. Take me to Hammer Industries." "Get in the car. Take me to Hammer Industries." "Fine. You want me to drive?" "No, I'm driving. Get in the car."**

"Fragile masculinity." Natasha coughed. 

**They get in the car and drive away. The drones are still shooting and people are screaming and running. They lock themselves onto the stairs and aim at Tony and start shooting, he doges and they end up shooting the drones following him. Other drones start shooting at the building. The kid from earlier, with the Iron Man helmet is targeted.**

"Not the child." Bruce said.

**The kid raises his hand, Tony lands beside him and shoots the drone. "Nice work, kid." He flies away. "You got multiples coming in on you." Rhodey shouts. "Let's get this away from the Expo."**

"That's probably a good idea." Quill said. 

**Happy is driving with Natasha in the backseat, she takes her hair down. "When we arrive I need you to watch the perimeter. I'm gonna enter the facility and take down the target." She starts getting undressed, Happy looks in the mirror at her. "Watch the road." She says. "I got it, I got it."**

"Happy." Tony sighed.

**Tony flies over a road, then under a bridge, the drones are still following him. He flies over some parked cars, a few alarms go off, the drones fly over the cars and more alarms go off. The drones start shooting. "Listen listen, a pack just peeled off, they're headed back to the Expo." Rhodey says. "Got it." "In closing in on you. Ordnance coming in hot Tony. Watch it." Rhodey starts shooting, destroying a bunch of cars. Happy pulls up outside Hammer industries, him and Natasha get out. "Stay in the car." She says. "I'm not staying in the car." "What are you wearing? Look, I'm not letting you go in there alone." "You want to help? Keep the car running." Happy opens the door and they walk in. "Hey, hey, hey. You can't come in here." A security guard says. Happy punches him in the face. Natasha walks past, she throws something and a guard gets electrocuted. Happy is now getting beat up by a security guard.**

"Poor Happy." Pepper mumbled. 

**Natasha jumps and knocks another guard out, she slides underneath another and kicks him in his area, another guard comes in Natasha swings her legs around his neck and knocks him out.**

"Remind me not to cross you." Scott said. 

**Drones are still flying around the Expo, one crashes into a building. Ivan deploys another set of drones from the stage. "Each set of drone is communicating in its own unique language." A technician says. "Well, choose one and focus on that." Pepper says. "ave you tried Russian? Why don't you try Russian?" Justin says.**

"That's not how that works." Tony said.

**Happy is still fighting the guard. "Attention. We have intrusion on Grid W." A man over a radio says. Natasha throws something at two more guards and knocks their legs out from underneath them. She fights three more guards. She takes down two more and Pepper sprays the last one. Happy finally takes his guard out. "I got him!"**

"Good for you Happy." Natasha smiles. 

Ivan pulls up specs for a suit. 

"Oh boy." 

Tony is still being chased by drones. "Rhodey, you still locked on?" He asks. "Yeah." "Drop your socks and grab your Crocs. We're about to get wet on this ride." 

"What?"

**"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Tony flies through a large globe, the drones follow hitting different parts of it, they explode. Natasha opens the door to Ivan's room, guns drawn, Happy is behind her. "He's gone." She says. She lowers her guns. "Sorry buddy had to thin out the heard. What's your 20?" Tony asks, Rhodey crashes into him, they fall into the bio-dome. Natasha does something on a computer. "What are you doing?" Happy asks. "I'm rebooting Rhodey's suit."**

"Oh, good."

**Rhodey and Tony start fighting each other. Rhodey starts shooting. "Tony!" Rhodey's suit powers down, he's lying on the floor. Tony stands up. "Reboot complete *Video of Tony appears on the screen*You got your best friend back." Natasha says. "Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff." "Well done on the new chest piece. I am reading significant higher output and your vitals all look promising." "Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you." Video of Pepper appears on the screen. "What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?" "Is that you? No, I'm not. Not anymore." Tony says. Natasha looks confused. "What's going on?" Pepper asks. " I was going to tell you. I didn't want to alarm you."**

"I feel like if you didn't have the new element and just died, she would have been more alarmed." Bucky said.

**"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?" "You didn't let me." "Why didn't you tell me that?" " I was gonna make you an omelette and tell you." "Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon."**

"Even Natasha thinks you two fight like a married couple." Rhodey laughed. 

**"You got incoming Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you." "Great. Pepper?" " Are you okay now?" "I am fine. Don't be mad. I will formally apologize-" "I am mad."**

"Maybe save this conversation to a time where he's not fighting an army of robots." Ned said.

**"-when I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack." "Fine." "We could have been in Venice." "Please." Tony knocks on Rhodey's helmet. "Rhodes. Snap out of it buddy. I need you. They're coming. Come on, let's roll. Get up." Rhodey's face-plate lifts. "Oh, man. You can have your suit back." Tony helps him up. "You okay?" "Yeah, thanks. Tony, look, I'm sorry, okay?" "Don't be." "No. I should have trusted you more."**

"I probably should have." Rhodey said to himself.

**"I'm the one who put you in this position. Forget it." "No. It's your fault. I just wanted to say I'm sorry." "Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. Partner. They're coming in hot, any second. What's the play?" "Well, we want to take the high ground, okay? So let's put the biggest gun up on that ridge." They both start walking in the same direction. "Got you. Where do you want to be?" "Where are you going?" "What're you talking about?" " I meant me." "You have a big gun. You are not the big gun."**

"He's not exactly wrong, not right, but also not wrong." Rocket said.

**"Tony, don't be jealous." "No. It's subtle all the bells and whistles." "Yeah. It's called being a bad-ass."**

"I'd say showoff but-" Thor said.

**"Fine. All right. You go up to. I'll draw them in." "Don't stay down here. This is the worst place to be." "Okay, you got a spot. Where's mine?" "It's the kill box, Tony. Okay This is where you go to die." Drones start dropping down.**

"Wasted time arguing and now you're both in the kill box." Peggy said. 

**They put their face-plates down and start fighting. Tony jumps up and hits one on the head and throws others out of the way. Rhodey shoots one to bits. Tony continues punching them. Tony dodges a missile and shoots one of his own instead, taking out three of the drones. "See that?" He asks. "Yeah, yeah. Nice." They continue fighting the drones. "Rhodey? Get down." Rhodey ducks, tony uses lasers to slice the drones in half as well as some trees. "Wow. I think you should lead with that next time." "Yeah. Sorry boss. I can only use it one. It's a one-off." Back at the Expo three cops arrive backstage. "I told you that 5 minutes ago." Justin says. "That's your guy there." Pepper says to a cop. "Excuse me?" He asks. "You are being placed under arrest." "Are you kidding me?" "Hands behind your back sir." " I'm trying to help here. I get it. I see what you're doing. You're trying to pin this on me, huh? That's good. That's good."**

"You're the one that caused this!" Everyone shouted.

 **"You're starting to think like a CEO, taking out the competition. I like that. You think you're making a problem for me? *He is being led away* I'm gonna make a problem for you. I'm gonna be seeing you again real soon."**

"Again with the empty threats." Clint said.

**Pepper walks out of the building with three cops. "When they get here, I think you should station them at the south, east and both west exits." She says. "We shut down the 7 train in and out of Willets Point already." A cop says. "Well, have city buses there to ferry people to operating lines." "Yeah. Are you coming with us?" "No, I'm gonna stay until to park is clear."**

"No offence, but that is a terrible idea." Maria said. 

**"Head up. You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher." Ivan lands across from Rhodey and Tony, he has a suit now. "Good to be back." He says. "Oh this ain't gonna be good." Ivan takes out his lightning whips. "I got something special for this guy I'm gonna bust his bunker with the Ex-Wife." Rhodey says and takes a few steps forward. "With the what?" Rhodey shoots him, the 'Ex-Wife' bounces off of his suit.**

"Oh my God." Scott laughed. 

**"Hammer-tech?" "Yeah." "I got this." Tony says, he tries to shoot Ivan in his head, but Ivan puts his helmet back up. He starts walking toward them. He tries to wack the with his lightning whip, Tony and Rhodey run in opposite directions. Rhodey starts shooting at him. Ivan wacks him with the whip. Tony flies over him, Ivan uses the whip to pull him down. Rhodey starts shooting again. Tony flies toward him, Ivan knocks him away. Ivan tangles Rhodey with one of his whips, yanks him forward and punches him away. Tony flies over to him, letting out a battle cry, he punches Ivan a few times. Ivan tangles him with a whip, then steps on Rhodey. Tony yanks him off, using the whip as leverage. Ivan tangles Rhodey with the other whip. "Rhodes, I got an idea. You wanna be a hero?" Tony asks. "What?" "I could really use a sidekick, put your hand up." Tony says as he puts his hand up. "This is your idea?" "Yep."**

"It worked didn't it?" Tony asked. 

**"I'm ready. I'm ready. Go, go, go!" "Take it!" They shoot at each other, causing a large explosion. Tony stands up, Rhodey does too and goes to stand by him, they Look at Ivan, who is still lying down. "You lose." He says.**

"How do you lose this time?" Quill asked. 

**The drones around them start blinking red. "All these drones are rigged to blow. We gotta get out of here man."**

"Oh."

**"Pepper?" Tony asks. They fly through the bio-dome. Pepper is still standing on the stairs when she notices a drone by her, blinking.**

"Oh no."

Tony flies up to her, lifts her up and flies away just before the drone blows up. 

"Oh, good, she's safe." Hope said. 

**They land on the roof of a building. Tony sets her down and takes the helmet off. Oh my God. I can't take this anymore." "You can't?" " I can't take this." " Look at me." "My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or wreak the whole company." " I think I did okay." One more thing explodes in the background.**

"'I think I did okay' Explosion. That is the most you thing you've ever said." Happy said.

 **"I quit. I'm resigning. That's it."**

"Mega oof." Shuri said.

 **"What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make excuses." "I'm- I'm- I'm not making any excuses." "You actually were just making excuses. But you don't have to." "No, I wasn't making an excuse. I'm actually very justified." " Listen. Hey, hey. You deserve better."**

"You do." Tony said.

**"Well-" "You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so... Right?" "Thank you." "Yeah." "Thank you for understanding." "Yeah, yeah. Let's talk clean-up." " I'll handle the transition. It'll be smooth." "Okay. What about the press? Because you only had the job for a week. That's gonna seem-"**

"Not good." Natasha finished the sentence. 

**"Well, with you it's like dog years."**

"Accurate." Rhodey said.

**"I know." "I mean, it's like the Presidency."**

"I wouldn't go that far." Rhodey said.

**They kiss.**

"Finally!" Everyone shouted. "It is about time you two stopped dancing around each other." Hope said. "We're together now though..." Pepper said, confused. "That's not my point." Hope said.

**"Weird." "No, its not weird." "Its okay right?" "Yeah." "Run that by me again." They kiss again. "I think its weird." Rhodey, who has apparently been there the whole time, says. "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."**

People laughed.

**He finishes. " I had just quit, actually." "Yeah, so we're not-" "You don't have to do that. I heard the whole thing." "You should get lost." " I was here first. Get a roof."**

A few people laughed.

 **"I thought you were out of one-liners." "That's the last one." "You kicked ass back there, by the way." " Thank you. You too. Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?" "Not okay. Not okay with that." "It wasn't a question." Rhodey leaves. "How are you gonna resign if I don't accept?"**

"Logic."

**Tony is sitting alone at a table. He picks up a file that reads 'Avengers initiative preliminary report.' Fury stops him. "I don't think I want you looking at that. I'm not sure it pertains to you anymore. Now this on the other hand, is Agent Romanoff's assessment of you. Read it." Fury hands him a new file. "'Personality overview. Mr Stark displays compulsive behavior.' In my own defense, that was last week. 'Prone to self-destructive tendencies.' I was dying. I mean, please. Aren't we all? 'Textbook narcissism'? Agreed. Okay, here it is. 'Recruitment assessment for Avenger Initiative. Iron Man? Yes.' I gotta think about it." "Read on." "'Tony Stark not... Not recommended'? That doesn't make any sense. How can you approve me but not approve me?"**

"Yeah, how can you do that?" Scott asked.

 **"I got a new ticker. I'm trying to do right by Pepper. I'm in a stable-ish relationship." Fury stands up and sits on the corner of the table. " Which leads us to believe at this juncture we'd only like to use you as a consultant." He says, Tony stands up and they shake hands. "You can't afford me. *He starts to walk away but stops* Then again, I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for a small favor. Rhodey and I are being honored in Washington and we need a presenter." "I'll see what I can do."**

"What did you do?" Mantis asked.

**Senator Stern is seen standing at a podium. "It is my honor to be here today to present these distinguished awards to Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes and Mr Tony Stark who is of course a national treasure."**

Everyone started laughing. Of course he, of all people, would be the presenter.

 **Stern walks over to them. He pins something on Rhodey's suit. "hank you Lieutenant Colonel, for such and exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this." he says. "Thank you sir." Stern walks over to Tony. "Mr Stark. Thank you for such as exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this. *Tony winces* Oh, sorry. Funny how annoying a little prick can be, isn't it? Let's get a photo."**

**A car is seen driving through a desert. Coulson steps out of the car and looks at a large crater. "Sir, we've found it." He says. The camera pans out to show Thor's hammer.**

"Is that going to be what we watch next, then?" Thor asked. "Well, I would assume so." Loki said. 


End file.
